Enclosure No. 2.
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
Hong Kong, 25th September 1911
REPORT ON ORDINANCE No.
19........of 194 1.
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1. I have oxamined the accompanying Ordinance. intituled
an Ordinance to enable the Governor to confirm by Proclamation
on certain police forces in the Colony the status of milition
in time of war or in other time
2.
of emergency.
A print of the memorandum of Objects and Reasons
of the Bill for this Ordinance is attached.
3. I am of opinion that this Ordinance is not
contrary to the Governor's instructions and that it is one
to which His Excellency may properly assent in the name of
His Majesty and on His behalf.
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Attorney General.
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Objects and Reasons.
1. In normal times and circumstances Police are essen- tially Peace Officers without combatant status, even though they bear arms as they have done in this Colony for many years.
2. But in abnormal times of War and emergency, such as the present, where the security of the Colony may be compromised at any time by parachutist or other forms of hostile attack it is necessary to give the police, for their own protection, combatant status under International law.
3. This result is achieved in different Colonies by different methods.
4. Thus section 50 of the Northern Rhodesia Police Ordinance, Chap. 46 provides that "In the event of war or other time of emergency members of the Corps are liable to be employed for military purposes and when so employed shall be subject to such terms and regulations as the Governor may declare.
Such declaration shall be by Proclamation published in the Gazette and shall state the limits within and the period for which the Corps or any part thereof shall be so employed.'
5. In the Straits Settlements the matter is dealt with by Defence Regulations-The Police Force (Military Service) Regulations, 1941, (No. S. 340 of the 30th May, 1941) Nos. 2 and 4 of which provide that "2. The Police Force in addition to exercising the powers and performing the duties conferred or imposed upon it by the Police Force Ordinance and other written laws shall if it becomes necessary or expedient so to do in the defence of the Colony engage in military operations against the armed forces of any enemy attempting to invade or otherwise carrying out warlike operations against the Colony or against the forces of His Majesty. 4. The Police Force in the performance of any military duties shall be an independent military force under the command of the Inspector General of Police and shall not unless the Governor specially so directs be under the orders of the Commandant of the Volunteer Force or of any superior military com- mander."
6. This Bill is an adaptation of both the above precedents #bearing in mind that Article 1 of Section 1 Chapter 1 of the Annex to Hague Convention II of 1899 dealing with the Qualifications of Belligerents provides that "The laws, rights and duties of war apply not only to armies, but also to militia and volunteer corps fulfilling the following conditions:-
1. That they be commanded by a person responsible
for his subordinates;
2. That they have a fixed distinctive emblem recog-
nizable at a distance;
3. That they carry arms openly; and
4. That they conduct their operations in accordance
with the laws and customs of war."
C. G. ALABASTER,
END
August, 1941.
Attorney General,
age 6
age 6
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89803
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